Author: Madatian Greg

RUSSIA’S MTS LAUNCHES 3G NETWORK IN ARMENIA

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
April 17, 2009 Friday

Russia’s largest mobile operator MTS has launched a third generation
(3G) network in Armenia, the company said in a statement Friday.

At present, the 3G network covers Armenia’s three largest cities –
Yerevan, Gyumri, and Vanadzor. MTS plans to launch the network in
all Armenian cities by the end of this year.

MTS is the biggest cellular operator in Russia and the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) by customers.

BABACAN: WE WANT TURKEY, ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN TO WIN

Today’s Zaman
April 16 2009
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has said Turkey sees relations
between it and Armenia from a broad perspective and that Ankara is
looking for a solution in which Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan will
all be winners.

"As Turkey, we want a solution in which everybody is a winner. We
want Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to win," he said on his way to
the 20th Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Foreign Ministers
Council in Yerevan yesterday.

He also said Turkey is seeking "comprehensive and complete
normalization."

"We don’t say, ‘Let’s first solve one problem and solve the other
later.’ We want a similar process to start between Azerbaijan and
Armenia. We are closely watching the talks between Azerbaijan and
Armenia," he added.

Turkish and Armenian officials have been attempting to create
a formula for normalizing relations between their countries, but
Armenia’s dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh looms in the
background as a potential deal breaker.

Azerbaijan, Turkey’s strategic and ethnic ally, has been uneasy with
prospects of a rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan, fearing
it will lose key leverage in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute if Turkey
opens its border and restarts diplomatic ties with Armenia. Ankara
has previously said normalization with Armenia is contingent on a
resolution in the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been under
Armenian occupation since 1991.

A high-level diplomatic source said, "Turkey cares about Azerbaijan’s
problems at least as much as the Azerbaijanis themselves." The two
countries have long boasted of their relationship as exemplary,
describing themselves as "one nation with two states" to highlight
their ethnic and strategic ties.

Azerbaijan’s concerns have been fueled by media reports indicating that
Turkey and Armenia could reach a deal to open their border as early as
this month. But Turkish officials, dismissing such reports, have said
the Turkish-Armenian border could be opened in October, when Armenian
President Serzh Sarksyan is due to visit Turkey to watch a World Cup
qualifying match between the national teams of the two countries.

Sources say Ankara will use the time until then to ease Azerbaijan’s
concerns and insist on progress in international efforts for the
resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue before proceeding with efforts
to normalize ties with Armenia, even though Armenia rejects any link
between the issues.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said yesterday at a BSEC
press conference, "Turkey and Armenia have gone a long way toward
opening the Turkey-Armenia border, and they will come closer to
opening it soon." He said there had been no agreement yet between
the two sides regarding opening of the border.

Asked about the potential opening of the Turkish-Armenian border,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad Guliev said the solution
to the two countries’ problems should be tied to the solution of the
dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Nalbandian, on the other hand, said the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is
being handled through the Minsk Group, created to find a solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1992 and co-chaired by Russia, the
United States and France.

Asked if Azerbaijan has reservations about Turkey’s ongoing talks
with Armenia, Guliev said Azerbaijanis believe Turkey will protect
their interests.

Just as there is ongoing dialogue between Turkey and Armenia,
there is also a parallel and ongoing process between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have met
three times over the last year.

Yesterday Babacan met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Guliev before leaving Yerevan. He
also had talks with Sarksyan and Nalbandian.

Meanwhile, Russian officials expressed a desire for better neighborly
relations between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Through a statement
from their embassy in Ankara, Russian officials said, "Russia has been
astonished to see media reports about Russia attempting to persuade
Baku that normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan is
aimed at marginalizing Baku." Russian officials said these allegations
are baseless and that they have not changed their foreign policy of
promoting stability and peace in the region.

Black Sea highway agreement approved Meanwhile, the Turkish
Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee approved the "Agreement
to Improve the Black Sea Highway" yesterday. At the deliberations
in Parliament the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
expressed concern that the highway runs through Yerevan and requested
a map. Officials said that there has been no map drawn yet and that
they are only dealing with the area within the borders of Turkey.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  +374-10-517163
Fax:  +374-10-517301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
April 16, 2009

Encyclical of Catholicos of All Armenians on the 100th Anniversary of Adana
Massacres

KAREKIN II, SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST,
BY THE MERCY OF GOD AND THE WILL OF THE NATION
CHIEF BISHOP AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS,
SUPREME PATRIARCH OF THE PAN-NATIONAL PREEMINENT ARARATIAN SEE
THE APOSTOLIC MOTHER CHURCH OF UNIVERSAL HOLY ETCHMIADZIN.

CHRIST-BEQUEATHED GREETINGS OF LOVE AND PONTIFICAL BLESSINGS
TO THE CATHOLICIOSATE OF THE GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA,
TO THE ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATES
OF HOLY JERUSALEM AND CONSTANTINOPLE,
TO ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND DEACONS,
TO DIOCESAN ASSEMBLIES,
DIOCESAN AND PAROCHIAL COUNCILS AND OFFICERS,
AND TO ALL BELOVED FAITHFUL ARMENIAN PEOPLE

We convey our Pontifical love and blessings from the Altar of Light – the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, to all our people in Armenia, Artsakh and
the Diaspora.

This year we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the massacres of Armenians
in Adana and various settlements of Cilician Armenia, remembering our
countless martyrs, and recalling the grave and catastrophic period of our
history at the beginning of the last century.  We commemorate the immortal
memory of our forefathers, who in ferocious times of massacres and genocide,
rose to heroic struggle, who `by their faith they displayed their courage,
and were praised by men and justified by God.’ Yeghishé

The Cilician massacres were the continuation of the plans of Sultan Abdul
Hamid II to `eliminate’ the Armenian question by annihilating the Armenian
population.  In the 1890s, approximately 300,000 Armenians were murdered in
Ottoman Turkey through bloody pogroms.  The Young Turks, having ascended to
power in Turkey, and who had guaranteed the equality of ethnic groups, the
defense of human rights, and the security of the individual and of property,
greater intensified persecutions against the Armenian people living on their
historical homeland and throughout other regions of Turkey.  In April 1909,
new pogroms were initiated in Adana, where 30,000 additional Armenians were
murdered.  To defend their right to life and liberty, Armenians relied on
self-defense and took up arms, with faith and reliance on God in their
souls, and love for their homeland and the Mother Church in their hearts.

The courageous Armenians of Adana, the valiant men of Zeitun, Van, Moush,
Musa Ler, and Armenians living in various regions of historic Armenia,
struggled to defend their right to life, liberty, justice and peace with a
triumphant faith and a spirit of bravery.  It is with this same faith and
strong will that the brave sons and daughters of our nation have battled in
the freedom-struggles of May 1918, on the battlefields of World War II, and
the heroic war for the liberation of Artsakh.

More than nine decades have passed since the Genocide of the Armenians. 
However, our tragedy-stricken people, who lost more than one and one-half
million souls in the genocide planned and executed by the Turkish
authorities, never ceased to hope for the universal condemnation of the
crimes committed against our forebears.  And they continue to always raise
their voice of protest in the name of justice for the entire world to hear,
so that similar calamities never again darken human life.

The Armenian Genocide opened a bloody and dark page of unheard of tragedy
not only for our people, but in the history of all nations.  The delay in
the condemnation of the Genocide of the Armenians encouraged similar crimes
to take place yet again, and the world witnessed new genocides.  In human
life today, policies of ethnic persecution and fanatic nationalism cause
serious concern, and demand the unified, universal and immediate
condemnation by international society.  The expression of the will and
desire to eliminate ethnic discrimination, trampling of national rights,
violence, inter-ethnic intolerance, and offenses committed against a people,
shall be the universal recognition and condemnation of the Armenian
Genocide.  The Armenian people, with this hope and faith, but with the
unhealed pain of genocide and the righteous demand for resolution to the
`Armenian Cause’ in their hearts, are building a new life in their free and
independent homeland and throughout the world.

Dear faithful sons and daughters, as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of
the Armenian massacres in Adana and Cilicia, we once again call for the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide for the sake of a world free of
violence, at peace and in prosperity.  Through the blessings and assistance
of Almighty God, and the unceasing efforts of our people, the new dawn of
justice shall open in our lives, and the righteous verdict will be granted
to our Armenian nation.  Let us remain steadfast in our faith, in our love
of God, our love for one another and in our just cause.  Let us remain
steadfast in our will and desire to vigilantly protect our native memories
and national legacy, and let us always live with love for our Lord Jesus
Christ, our Holy Church and our homeland.  Let us pray to God Almighty for
the unified efforts of our people to be bountiful and produce fruitful
results in our national-ecclesiastical spheres, for the love of our homeland
and Armenian life dispersed throughout the world, our bright future and the
manifestation of all national aspirations.

`Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.’
Romans 1:7

With Blessings,

(signed)

KAREKIN II
CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS

Encyclical issued on the 15th of April
In the Year of our Lord 2009 and in the date of the Armenians 1458
At the Mother Monastery of Holy Etchmiadzin
Number 513

OBAMA BACKS BETTER TURKEY-ARMENIA TIES IN TALKS WITH AZERI PRESIDENT

AzerNews Weekly
April 15 2009
Azerbaijan

US President Barack Obama has said Washington backs efforts to improve
Turkey-Armenia relations during a phone conversation with Azerbaijani
leader Ilham Aliyev.

During the phone call Obama called for a negotiated solution of
long-standing disputes involving Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey,
the White House said. He also emphasized that the bettering of ties
between Ankara and Yerevan would promote peace and well-being in the
volatile region.

Baku is concerned over efforts to reconcile their close ally Turkey
with arch-foe Armenia. Reports have circulated that Turkey plans
to open its border with Armenia, which has been closed since 1993
due to Armenia`s occupation of Azerbaijani territory and its claims
regarding World War I-era genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

During the conversation, the US president said his country was
committed to maintaining ties with Azerbaijan, pledging to assist
in the efforts to move forward the resolution of its long-running
conflict with Armenia over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh.

The talks came after Obama visited Turkey, where he urged Turkey and
Armenia to advance talks to establish diplomatic ties and open their
shared border.

According to President Aliyev`s office, among the issues discussed
were ways of resolving the Garabagh problem, energy cooperation and
regional security.

The two presidents had a frank conversation during which they
expressed satisfaction at the successful development of Azerbaijan-US
relations. Aliyev conveyed to his US counterpart Baku`s position on
Turkey-Armenia relations.

"Barack Obama informed the Azerbaijani leader about steps taken by
the United States concerning Turkey-Armenia relations. President
Ilham Aliyev brought the Azerbaijani state`s position on the issue
to the US president`s attention," according to a statement released
by Aliyev`s office.

Analysts say that Baku`s clear-cut position on Turkey`s plans to open
its border with Armenia and the statements by Turkish officials remains
uncertain, although Aliyev hinted during a meeting of Azerbaijan`s
Security Council early last week that Baku could retaliate against
Turkish moves to reconcile with Armenia.

"We are observing ongoing changes in the region and necessary measures
will be taken," the local media quoted Aliyev as saying. "Our country
has never interfered in the affairs of other countries and we have
no such intentions in the future. However, it is our right to pursue
our policy in accordance with the situation in the region."

Arastun Orujlu, the head of Azerbaijan`s East-West Research
Center, says that the public is insufficiently informed about
certain issues. According to Orujlu, Obama`s message does not clearly
indicate whether the U.S. approaches Garabagh settlement talks from the
viewpoint of Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity or Garabagh Armenians`
aspiration regarding self-determination.

Another political analyst, Elkhan Shahinoglu said, while commenting
on Obama`s message stating support for improved Turkey-Armenia
relations, that the US president, in fact, approaches the issue from
the standpoint of Washington`s interests.

"Improving Turkey-Armenia ties is important for Obama. On one hand,
the Armenian lobby is pressing Obama, while on the other, the American
president does not want to lose an ally like Turkey. After relations
between the two countries improve, his attention to the Upper Garabagh
conflict might increase."

Orujlu, for his part, said Obama`s message was meant to put pressure
on Azerbaijan. However, the question arises as to whether or not this
pressure could alter Baku`s stance.

"In any case, there are powerful international mechanisms and, if they
are put to use, Azerbaijan may have to back down," Orujlu maintained.

Also, Orujlu said the local public lacks detailed information about the
proposals being made to Azerbaijan regarding the Garabagh settlement,
however, resistance by Baku enables a presumption that these proposals
do not reflect the country`s interests.

Nostalgia For Modern Times
By Ariella Budick

FT
April 15 2009 22:46

‘The Generational: Younger than Jesus’, New Museum, New York

This survey of artists under 33 puts its finger to the pulse of
the youngest generation and finds it very faint indeed. The show’s
overwhelming dreariness suggests that, despite the messianic title,
the coming of art’s saviours is farther off than ever.

‘YE (Pilzschiel)’ (2006) by Mariechen Danz These are the Millennials,
born since 1976 and natives of the digital nation. You might expect
them to be gazing forwards but, with a few exceptions, they are
either afflicted with nostalgia or destitute of fresh ideas. They
seem to have taken to heart the environmentalists’ dictum: recycle,
recycle, recycle.

Cory Arcangel mimics a stereotypical modernist abstraction by
duplicating the Adobe software’s colour spectrum on a large scale. The
upshot is an iridescent blue field, eye-catching but ultimately
dead. Part smirk, part homage, it simultaneously mocks and honours
mystical modernists such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. Arcangel
seems to long for a time when artists saw themselves as prophets.

Keren Cytter’s film, in which two sylphs taunt a 42-year-old woman
about her shrivelling sexuality, also resurrects a once-invincible
avant-garde.

The characters speak in pseudo-poetic fragments; fantasy bleeds into
reality; narrative halts and doubl es back on itself. Cytter reheats
the terse cuts of Goddard and the self-conscious poetry of Bergman
into a melange of warmed-over appropriation. It’s a stale brew indeed.

Guthrie Lonergan turns his scavenger’s eye to the internet,
mining it for ready-made tedium. He splices together bits of video
in which MySpace users introduce themselves. The material is by
definition boring and repetitive – how many ways are there to say
"hello?" Whatever his point, Lonergan makes it the hard way, subjecting
us to long-winded, haphazardly shot monologues that are less revealing
than enervating.

Elad Lassry attempts to breathe new life into old forms by
appropriating ads from magazines, censoring the product name but
leaving the rest. "His goal," a panel informs us, is "a renovation of
the ancient convention of the still life." A mixture of callowness and
grandiosity derives from that misguided ambition. If the still-life
genre really needed reinvention, Lassry’s limp cabbages would hardly
do the trick.

‘Game Over’ (2004) by Cao Fei Any large group exhibit includes some
dross, but the trio of curators – Lauren Cornell, Massimiliano Gioni
and Laura Hoptman – has kept the overall quality pristinely low. This
was not easy: a vast network of experts recommended more than 500
applicants, of which 50 made the cut. I suspect that in sifting through
these mountains of creativity, the curators noticed a few artists who
looked back in irony or rearranged existing material, and immediately
declared it a trend. From then on, it was simpler to cherry-pick work
that conformed to the idea of a generation of borrowers than to explore
the diversity of youth. Or maybe – a far more depressing thought –
Younger than Jesus really does represent the best of the best.

Not everything here is so imaginatively depleted. Cyprien Gaillard’s
mesmerising half-hour video, "Desniansky Raion", is neither original
nor technically virtuosic, but it bespeaks a good eye and a curious
mind.

Gaillard is a kind of aerial documentarian, looking down on the bleak
urban landscape of mid-20th century social housing. It’s a video in
three mournful acts. I: Russian hooligans enact a ritual brawl in a St
Petersburg parking lot. II: A festive light show animates the facade
of a housing estate in France, which then decorously implodes. III:
A little plane, with camera on board, buzzes the Desniansky Raion, a
Stonehenge circle of grim apartment buildings in Kiev. These vignettes
of decrepitude on an imperial scale chronicle the failure of modernist
architecture to deliver on its utopian promise.

The Armenian videographer Tigran Khachatryan enlists the YouTube
aesthetic to comment on the art of social change. He intercuts clips
of roving teenagers with scenes from classic Soviet20cinema, and Lo,
how the disenfranchised have fallen: the seamen in Battleship Potemkin
rose up against their oppressors; the revolution’s aimless descendants
hurl themselves down concrete ravines in fits of giddy nihilism.

Khachatryan and Gaillard make deft use of imagery that looks mined from
today’s immense quarry of amateur video, even when it’s not. They
embody the artist as curator, culling, assembling and trying to
find some sense, however vague, in the global abundance of visual
resources. They share that approach with many other participants. In
a sense, the organisers were auditioning colleagues when they made
their selections – which is another way of saying the curators saw
themselves as artists. I’m not sure the boundary between creator and
curator is one that bears blurring.

The show also draws a different line that seems arbitrary: the one
between generations. To group art by the age of its makers is to imply
that the young have a special relationship with innovation, that as
a group only they can produce a ferment of fresh ideas, unburdened
by habit or received wisdom. In fact, what you get is little more
than a student show, heavy with influence and anxiety. The artists
may feel like they are carving out a freewheeling space in a culture
rigidified by commerce. But the museum has simply trapped them in a
marketing concept.

Runs until June 14, tel +1 212 219122,20

WITH IRAN HELP, ARMENIA SETS UP NEW WIND POWER PLANTS

Moj News Agency
April 13, 2009 Monday
Iran

At a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Parviz Fattah in tehran,
Armen Movsisyan told reporters that Yerevan has so far received
Tehran`s help to create four units of wind power plants and the two
countries will cooperate to build more power plants in the Central
Asian country. "Iran has the best equipments for power plants and
such equipments have also been used in constructing wind power plants
in Armenia," Movsisyan added. In this meeting, the Armenian minister
expressed his country`s satisfaction with the wind power plants which
Iran helped to construct and asked for more Tehran`s assistance in
developing such installations.

AZERBAIJAN: IS BAKU READY TO CAUSE GEOPOLITICAL PROBLEMS OVER TURKISH-ARMENIAN THAW?
Shahin Abbasov

Eurasianet
April 14, 2009

Hope is laden with peril in the South Caucasus these days. After
decades of enmity, Armenia and Turkey appear ready to make peace. But
Azerbaijan — Turkey’s ally and Armenia’s enemy — has made it known
that if the developing rapprochement does not take Baku’s interests
into account, then it is ready to blow up the region’s present
geopolitical and economic balance.

The next few days could prove to be the decisive phase in a delicate
reconciliation process. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is set
to begin a two-day visit to Russia starting April 16. He has broadly
hinted that he might reorient Baku’s abundant energy resources toward
Russia, if he does not receive appropriate assurances from Turkish
officials that they will not betray Azerbaijani interests as they
strive to normalize relations with Armenia. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive].

Baku is most alarmed by the prospect of Turkey’s lifting an economic
embargo against Armenia, a blockade imposed in the 1990s as a show of
Ankara’s support for Azerbaijan efforts to retain possession of the
separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Rumors have swirled in recent
weeks that Turkey was preparing to reopen its border with Armenia.

Those rumors gained steam in early April, when US President
Barack Obama visited Turkey and gave a rousing endorsement for
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. And during an April 10 news conference in
Yerevan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan reiterated his expectation
that the border would re-open soon. "We have to normalize relations
with Turks," he said.

During the days leading up to Obama’s visit to Turkey, a wide array of
Azerbaijani officials began issuing warnings that Turkish-Azerbaijani
relations would suffer grievous harm if Ankara lifted the embargo
without Baku’s consent. From the official standpoint in Baku, the
economic blockade creates leverage on Armenia to engage in Karabakh
peace talks. The lifting of the blockade, Baku worries, would end any
possibility of a negotiated settlement, under which Karabakh remains
under Azerbaijani jurisdiction. To punctuate Baku’s displeasure,
Aliyev refused to attend the Alliance of Civilizations summit held
April 6-7 in Istanbul.

Immediately after the Obama visit to Turkey, Aliyev delivered a blunt
message to Ankara that it could not be friends with both Baku and
Yerevan at the same time. He went on to indicate that Baku would take
retaliatory steps, if Turkey lifted the embargo on Armenia. He hinted
that the primary form of retaliation would be a shift in Azerbaijan’s
energy policy away from the West and toward Moscow. The Kremlin in
recent months has conducted an intensive lobbying effort to woo Baku
away. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"We follow possible geopolitical changes in the region and take
necessary measures," Aliyev said during a meeting of Azerbaijan’s
Security Council. "It is our [Azerbaijan’s] right to conduct our own
policy concerning a possible new situation in the region, and we will
use this right in any form."

Rasim Musabekov, a Baku-based political analyst, said he believed that
Aliyev was not bluffing, and that Baku was ready to take a radical
geopolitical turn. "It was not an accident that as US President Obama
was meeting [Turkish President] Abdullah Gul, Aliyev was talking
with Russian President Medvedev over the phone," Musabekov said in
comments distributed by the Turan news agency on April 7.

Both Turkish and US leaders have sought to provide the assurances that
Baku seeks, namely that its position in the Karabakh peace process
will not suffer because of any Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasized publicly
on April 10 that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations
was linked to a Karabakh political settlement. "We will not sign an
agreement [on the normalization of relations] with Armenia if Armenia
and Azerbaijan have not reached agreement over Nagorno-Karabakh,"
Erdogan said. Meanwhile, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported April
11 that Turkish and Azerbaijani officials were engaged in constant
talks aimed at finessing the various diplomatic dilemmas.

Earlier, Obama held a telephone conversation with Aliyev, during which
the US president reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to the Karabakh
peace process. Obama also reportedly presented an argument to Aliyev
that Turkish-Armenian reconciliation would act as a catalyst for
broader peace in the South Caucasus.

By all indications, however, Aliyev is not buying into Obama’s
reasoning. Aliyev’s presidential press office did not release any
statement on the phone conversation, and Baku’s official criticism
of Turkey continued unabated.

On April 9, Araz Azimov, Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign minister,
suggested that Baku would endorse the reopening of the Turkish-Armenian
border only after a Karabakh peace settlement had been agreed
upon. "Otherwise, it [the border reopening] would contradict
Azerbaijani interests," Azimov told journalists in Baku on April 9.

In a backhanded manner, the president of State Oil Company (SOCAR),
Rovnag Abdullayev, appeared to threaten Turkey with a disruption of
natural gas supplies in the event the Turkish-Armenian border reopened
without Baku’s consent. "I do not believe that Turkish-Armenian border
will be opened, and, therefore, I do not expect stop of gas supplies
from Shah Deniz field to Turkey," Abdullayev said in comments broadcast
by ANS TV on April 8.

While the government and large part of Azerbaijani society have
joined in Turkey bashing in recent weeks, a few political analysts
are cautioning that Baku could come to regret a rash geopolitical
switch. "Of course, the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border
is against Azerbaijani interests. However, the pumping [by the
government] of propaganda against our major strategic ally Turkey
is also very dangerous game," Elhan Shahinoglu, the head of the
Baku-based Atlas Center for Political Research, told EurasiaNet in
an April 10 interview.

Shahinoglu suggested that Ankara had been caught off guard by the
Aliyev administration’s vehemence on the border re-opening issue. He
indicated that Ankara has kept Baku in the loop about the substance of
the Turkish-Armenian moves on reconciliation, and that Azerbaijani
officials had not expressed any particular concerns about the
re-opening of the border until very recently.

Shahinoglu said that Aliyev’s upcoming visit to Moscow could very
well produce a reorientation of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy. If
Baku and Moscow were to embrace a rapprochement of their own, then
American and European plans for a reordering of the continental energy
equation would be shattered. In particular, all hope for building
the long-contemplated Nabucco and Trans-Caspian pipelines would be
lost. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"The quick relaxation of Turkish-Azerbaijani [tension] is needed
now,’ Shahinoglu said. "Otherwise, serious changes in Azerbaijani
foreign policy could happen, and that would be against Turkish and
US interests in the region."

Somewhat ironically, Azerbaijani-Turkish relations could end up
taking a turn for the better in Moscow, as Erdogan, who will be
in the Russian capital at the same time as Aliyev, may meet with
the disgruntled Azerbaijani president. Those discussions, in turn,
could provide added momentum to a scheduled May 7 meeting in Prague
between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders on the Karabakh issue.

Editor’s Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent
based in Baku. He is also a board member of the Open Society
Institute-Azerbaijan

ARMAVIA AIRCOMPANY ANNOUNCES NEW FLIGHT YEREVAN-BERLIN

ArmInfo
2009-04-14 13:38:00

ArmInfo. Armavia Aircompany, the national air carrier of Armenia,
has announced a new flight Yerevan-Berlin.

Armavia Director General Norayr Belluyan told media up-to-date planes
will fly to Berlin from Yerevan. Airbus A-319 will serve the first
flight.

Armavia offers flights to Berlin twice in a week on Tuesdays and
Fridays.

The tickets are starting from 300 euros. In addition, in Berlin
passengers will be given an opportunity to get a flight of Air Berlin
due to an agreement between Armavia and Air Berlin. Tickets can be
reserved also at

Armavia offers over 170 flights to over 30 destinations. The air
fleet of the company consists of 3 A-319, 2 A-320 airbuses, by one
Il-86 and Tu-134.

In 2009 the company will acquire Sukhoi Superjet-100. The company’s
aviation risks are insured by ISG company.

THE ARF FIGURE IS CONFIDENT THAT THE US PRESIDENT WILL KEEP HIS PROMISE ON APRIL 24
Nairi Muradian

AZG DAILY
14-04-2009

In order to be ready for the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border,
the ARF (Dashnaktsutyun) is preparing an "economic document" to submit
for consideration of the Government.

The document will be ready until the end of the month, the ARF
Bureau Hay Dat and Political Affairs office director Kiro Manoyan
told journalists yesterday at "Urbat" club.

The ARF document that, according to Kiro Manoyan, is more economic
than political is the program of actions to be taken before and after
opening of the border.

According to Kiro Manoyan, Azerbaijan’s "tearfulness" after the US
President’s visit forces Turkey to return to the situation created
after the blockade of 1993, when "Turkey became a hostage to the
Azerbaijani policy".

"Especially after Barack Obama’s visit to Turkey Erdogan’s
announcements have become rather serious, in the sense that
Armenian-Turkish negotiations may reach a deadlock. Turkey has already
started speaking of preconditions", Kiro Manoyan told adding that they
don’t speak of signing of an agreement and opening of the border in
this year with the previous confidence.

"What about Obama’s role in this, on April 24 he will keep his promise
and will recognize the Armenian Genocide as he promised before being a
president. He has already announced in Turkey that his position hasn’t
changed. And the President, who told that in Turkey will speak more
freely in his country, especially when speaking with his citizens,
whom he has given a promise. We are confident that President Obama
will keep his promise on this coming April 24", Kiro Manoyan said.

What about the question whether recognition of the Armenian Genocide
will do harm to US-Turkish relations, Kiro Manoyan said that nothing
of the kind will happen – "Just one or two months of Turkish annoyance
towards USA".

According to the ARF figure, recognition of the Armenian Genocide
by the USA is very important, as it will make Turkey recognize its
history, then it will affect recognition of the Armenian Genocide
by a series of other countries, and will make Turkey to conduct more
serious negotiations with Armenia.

Touching upon Serzh Sargsian’s last announcement that if Turkey
stands back from the reached agreement, Armenia will come out of the
process getting stronger, Kiro Manoyan said that he agreed with it
in part. According to him, everything depends on the Armenian-Turkish
negotiations’ duration and the US position on it. If President Obama
does not recognize the fact of 1915, then speaking of strength will
be in vain.

According to the Director of Hay Dat and Political Affairs office,
not the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border but establishment of
Armenian-Turkish diplomatic relations is of primary importance.

WHY POLICEMEN WERE NOT ARRESTED

19:09:18 – 10/04/2009
LRAGIR.AM

More than a year passed after the tragedy of March 1, but no policeman
has been arrested up today and no one is persecuted. Do the Police
have nothing to be blamed for? This question was asked to Serge
Sargsyan at the press conference on April 10.

`Everyone is to blame for the March 1 events. I mean the Police forces
as well. But this general conception of guilty or not guilty is not a
term of the crime code, the crime code likes concreteness, which lacks
today,’ says Serge Sargsyan. He said that no one have been arrested
because there is no concrete fact.

He also explained the share of fault of the government and of the
Police is according to him. `I think that the share of fault of the
government and the Police is that the professionalism lacked. But,
being sincere, I have to note that the Police are not to be blamed for
this, but this was a consequence of the general state. As you may
know, we are obliged to have a big army and it needs big finances, and
the Police are given what is left from the army finances. That is why
it had to use residual armies on that day and the level of
professionalism was scarce. But we have to take into account that the
government and the Police had to keep the public order.

According to him, any government must keep the order. `And, in
relation of what measures of struggle are adopted against the
government, it has to respond in an adequate way. If the wrongdoers of
March 1 did not use arms the Police would not be obliged to use them
either. I’m more than sure of this,’ said Serge Sargsyan.